The Silent Majority
by Ravenclaw of District Two
Summary: Everyone has a story, but not everyone's story is told. Snippets from the lives of the citizens of Panem.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: So this is just my impression of what might have been going through Annie's head during her games. At this point, she's gone round the bend, and I wanted to portray her confusion and hurt._

Chapter 1: Annie Cresta

"_Water, water everywhere, _

_And all the boards did shrink;_

_Water, water everywhere,_

_Not any drop to drink."_

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Everywhere is water. Hot sun on cool water on bare feet. The sun is yellow. The water is blue. Annie is red. Red hair, red eyes, red nose. Red arms, red legs, red feet. Red from sun or from blood? Blood is sticky. Annie isn't.

Sun is orange, water is purple. Water isn't purple. Water is blue, water is green, water is grey. Water isn't purple. Water smells like salt and seaweed. Water smells like home. Water smells like Mama and Da and Finnick and Calder

Calder smelled like blood. Blood smells like metal and bad and grating and hurt. Calder was hurt. Calder is gone. Annie can't find Calder. Where is Calder? Calder is gone. Annie is scared. Annie misses Calder. Annie wants

Finnick. Finnick is good. Finnick smells like happy. Finnick isn't scary. Finnick will help Annie. Annie will be okay. Annie just needs Finnick. Where is Finnick? Annie can't find Finnick. Annie is scared again. She needs Finnick and Mama and Da and Aedre and home.

Annie wants to go home.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Atala

"_It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." _

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

We may not agree, but we do not have a choice. The Capitol is hard on all its citizens. One misstep will haunt you forever.

The Capitol has a twisted sense of humor. If you step out of line, your punishment is always poetical. The punishments always play on your worst fears, or on your deviance from acceptability. The Capitol enjoys playing with you, toying with your thoughts and your emotion. They will hurt you until you are just about to break. You are allowed to stand on the brink of insanity, but never allowed to fall in. All the bureaucrats think along the same lines as Gamemakers. They enjoy pain. Schadenfreude is a way of life for them.

I made the mistake of speaking my mind once. I may belong to the Capitol, I may dwell in luxury, I may have never known the feeling of hunger, but that doesn't mean I like watching twenty-three kids die every year. I cried on a friend's shoulder during the 69th Hunger Games. I told her it was a sick, twisted idea. Turns out she was a member of the Intelligence Office.

Standard treatment for a first offence is a week in the Stronghold. One week of reeducation and brainwashing, but for a higher citizen, a member of the nobility, if you like, the "easier" punishments are meted out. In this case, it was vocational relocation. I was assigned to the Training Center. My job was to prepare twenty-three kids for their deaths each year. I have to watch them torture each other for three weeks each year, and I can show no emotion

The Capitol has a sick idea of fun.

I'm glad I wasn't taken in.

I wish I had a choice.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Beetee

"_Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."_

-Marie Curie

Beetee has hated science thrice in his life. He has disliked it many times, but has only hated it thrice. Most of the time, it is his refuge. It is his escape. Sometimes, however, he is confronted with the effects of misapplied science. It is always painful. It hurts him, because he knows that science is not bad; only the people who control that science. Unfortunately, he has been the one to give those people that technology.

Beetee is a rational person. He knows that he cannot blame technology for evil. Humans commit crimes, not science. It is impossible for an inanimate object to hurt someone of its own accord. Technology is incapable of guilt. It does not _do_; it simply _is_. However, when there is too much pain, and all the world is crashing down, it's easier to blame the thing than the person. It's much easier to create an opaque bubble and live inside it than it is to remove the paint and see the evil underneath.

The first time the bubble popped was when he won his Games. It was the 53th annual Hunger Games. He thought he didn't have a chance. District Three never won, and the Careers were strong. He never did manage to figure out how he survived so long in his Games. All he knew was that it was driving him mad. He was just a bit insane when he found the wire. He always told himself that, because it left the bubble intact. But he saw the wire, and he used it. Beetee was a smart boy. He knew he would have to kill to stay alive. So he killed. But he killed where he wouldn't have to watch, where he wouldn't have to…_participate_. He still heard the screams; he still watched them die as he sat enthroned in front of all Panem. That was the first time Beetee hated science.

The second time the bubble popped was when Teleron won the 58th Hunger Games. Twice in a decade, District Three had presented a victor. The Capitol was ecstatic. The commentators were going delirious. Caesar Flickerman had a field day. But Beetee sat quietly. He smiled for the cameras, but when no one looked, his brow was creased, and unshed tears swam in his eyes. Teleron, too, had killed with electricity. Teleron, too, was hurt. Beetee saw the pain in the boy's eyes, the haunted look that never quite managed to fade away. Science was not to blame; it was the Capitol's fault. But again, the bubble was preferable to reality. That was the second time Beetee hated science.

The third time the bubble popped was in the Mockingjay War. He saw the footage of the attack in the Capitol. He knew who created those bombs. He saw his hand in those deaths. He thought he had finally forgiven himself for his Games, but when he caused those children to die, all the guilt poured over him again. Beetee knew that it was not his fault that Coin was a cold-hearted logician, or at least his brain knew that. However, the heart has a way of muting logic and sense. All Beetee knew, was that when he saw those children die, the bubble had popped yet again, and he had no one to blame but science.

He always blamed science, but in the end, he reconciled himself to the necessity of technology. Gradually, Beetee returned to the lab. Slowly, he recovered. Eventually, he had an epiphany, that evil will always exploit the good, and that is when the bubble finally disappeared.

Forever.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Blight

With a swing and a heavy thud  
The axe plunges down its path  
The wielder spackled in mud  
Nothing escapes its wrath.

With a swing and a heavy thud  
The fist connects with my joint  
They wrestle me from my dad  
And take him away at gunpoint.

With a swing and a heavy thud  
The axe plunges down its path  
The wielder spackled in mud  
Nothing escapes its wrath.

With a swing and a heavy thud  
I sever his neck from his head  
With my hands covered in blood  
I should be the one who's dead.

With a swing and a heavy thud  
The axe plunges down its path  
The wielder spackled in mud  
Nothing escapes its wrath.

With a swing and a heavy thud,  
My body drops to the floor  
The cannon telling forest and flood  
That Blight is no more.

With a swing and a heavy thud  
The axe plunges down its path  
The wielder spackled in mud  
Nothing escapes its wrath.

With a swing and a heavy thud.


End file.
